After playing 10 games in the first 22 days of the season, the Western Kentucky women’s basketball team will play just its third contest in the past 21 days when the Lady Toppers visit Belmont at 6 p.m. today.

The team is coming off its second layoff of at least seven days this month. But even that hasn’t slowed down WKU – winner of seven straight.

“I felt like we grew over those (first) 12 games, and hopefully we’ll continue to keep getting better,” WKU coach Michelle Clark-Heard said.

A win today would make Western Kentucky 11-2 for the second time in three seasons under Heard. Should the Lady Toppers reach a 13-2 mark, that would be their best record through 15 games since starting the 1994-95 season 18-2.

With an RPI of 19, WKU received 13 votes in last week’s Associated Press poll and is behind only three teams to get into the top 25. Each time out from henceforth becomes a resume-building opportunity for the Lady Toppers. Road wins also garner a higher value in those conversations.

“What we’ve always tried to do since we’ve been here is get a routine and get on the road and compete,” Heard said. “Myself and the staff has always talked to the team about in order to win championships, you’re going to have to win on the road.

“That’s been our mindset. We call them business trips, and we prepare for them the same way every time.”

Tonight’s matchup is the last nonconference game for the Lady Toppers before beginning the program’s first season in Conference USA. So before a trip to Marshall on Sunday, WKU must take care of business tonight against a Belmont team (3-9) with a deceptive record.

The Lady Bruins have the Ohio Valley Conference’s second-best RPI going into today and were tabbed the preseason OVC favorite. Belmont has losses to Vanderbilt, Louisville, Kentucky and Georgia, and seven of its nine defeats have been by an average of 8.4 points.

Tonight will be BU’s third home game of the season.

“You look at everyone they’ve played; they’ve been in all the games,” Heard said. “They have a lot of upperclassmen that know how to play. They shoot the ball very well. They have some bigs that can score around the basket. It’s going to be a battle for us.”

Senior forward Jordyn Luffman-Hartsfield is the OVC’s preseason player of the year and is averaging 11.4 points and 6.1 rebounds. Sophomore forward Frankie Joubran is nearly averaging a double-double at 12.8 points and 9.8 rebounds.

Senior Adrienne Tarrence, from Bowling Green High School, leads Belmont with 39 assists and is fourth on the team with 43 rebounds.

“We’re going to have to go in and be prepared to go through our gameplan and make sure that we don’t leave shooters wide open,” Heard said. “And we have to get off to a really good start.”

Western Kentucky is 6-3 all-time against Belmont and has won four straight in the series. The Lady Toppers haven’t lost to BU since 1976 and haven’t lost to the Lady Bruins in Nashville since 1974.

Haskins speaks to team

The Lady Toppers were treated to a visit from former WKU great Clemette Haskins after Sunday’s practice at E.A. Diddle Arena.

“Her speaking as a alumni and former player, one of the greatest players to play here, she just talked about pride,” Heard said. “She talked to them about how she has talked to a lot of the other former players and how proud they are of what this team is doing and what they’ve accomplished the past couple of the years.

“She told them to just continue to keep fighting and doing the things that they’re doing, but also to get ready to make a statement in Conference USA.”

Haskins was an All-American in 1987 and ranks eighth all-time in scoring at WKU.

— Follow Western Kentucky University women’s basketball reporter Chad Bishop on Twitter at twitter.com/MrChadBishop or visit bgdailynews.com.